Friday NYRA Bets Podcast: Southside Johnny

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Hello and welcome to the NYRA bets late pick five podcast. I’m your host, Peter Thomas foreign, a towel back with you in the Brooklyn bunker. Once again, world travel, taking a break from the world. Travel, going back to ask it on the 14th, just back from Italy. And we’ll start off the show, not just with an introduction, but also a thank you to the man.

I’m about to bring onto the microphone. He is the people’s champion and he’s a pretty darn good podcast host too. I’m talking about Jonathan kitchen. What’s up JK PTF. What’s going on? I, uh, I appreciate it. Uh, glad I could help. It was, uh, it was easy. It’s, it’s just a completely different way of going about it, but, uh, it worked out good.

I was lucky enough to have our friend and our good friend Nick tomorrow on to, to kinda guide us along with the, uh, with the NY recovers last week. And. And that made it a lot more comfortable for me as well. I, you know, Nick and I have hour long conversations all the time. So what’s a, what’s an hour long podcast.

You just record at that time. That’s all. And that that’s so smart you to grease out to real pros, like a mapper near and Nick tomorrow. Uh, I’ll, I’ll really respect your podcasting abilities. I’ll accept your Wally PIPP taunts a lot more when, and I’m not naming names here, but sometimes you get one, uh, where you’re just dancing with a broom and then I’ll be really impressed.

I’ll just start talking. I’ll stop asking them questions. I just let him sit there. That’ll be great for the listeners. All right. We have a special guests coming up later in the show. My old friend, Southside, Johnny is going to be here. He’s playing at Belmont after the races on Friday. Concert included with the admission to the park and it’s going to be fun.

So if you’re already going to be going out to Belmont, make sure stick around, even if you could only stick around for some of it before you go and enjoy your evening. Festivities checkout, Southside, Johnny. One of the great rock performance that I have ever seen brings a lot of soul into the mix too.

And, uh, it’s the good stuff. Uh, J K unfortunately. You’ve got a wedding to go to. I don’t know who these people are, who get married on a triple crown weekends, but apparently they’re out there. We’ve heard some horror stories. You will be sorely missed and I’m sad. You won’t get to see sassy, Johnny. I think he might dig it.

Yeah. You know, it’s a, I don’t know who, whose idea it was to get married on a, on a triple crown day. But, uh, You know, I’ll do my best. I’ll do my best to, uh, to do what I can do from a distance that’s fair. And we’ll be sharing all of our thoughts on the Saturday card on the late week in the money players podcast.

But we’re here right now, before we bring in Southside, Johnny to talk about the late pick five on Friday, we tell people over and over help us out. Sign up. For your NYRA bets account and use our promo code money. I believe they might also be a special promo code money 25 for this week. But money is our main promo code.

When you sign up for your NYRA or account, you’ll get that bet 200 get 200 bonus. But I already said this at the beginning of the show, so I don’t need to go back there right now. Instead, we’re going to go right to Ray seven and I have to ask JK on a podcast dedicated to a horse racing and horse players.

Can you really go against a horse named Maven? Obviously for the name reason, it’s, it’s a tough, it’s a tough thing to do, but I think the PPS make it, make it a challenge as well. Um, look, I, I think that that may even is, is the most talented horse in here. I think he’s the fastest horse in here. I think that the figures that not everyone has four and a half figures, but the figures that you can find suggest that he’s the fastest, um, And, and, uh, uh, the horse by the name of Lebda L E B D a that ran behind the Maven.

Not amazing, but maiden behind ran behind the Maven, um, ended up, uh, running back and running well as well. So we, we talk about that as a kind of, uh, a new age, key race thing. I don’t necessarily need them to win. I just need their figures to, to make sense and to match what was previously done, Maven as a single for me in this early.

Oh, excuse me, this late, pick five and the first race of this late pick five. Uh, he’s a single for me and the rest of them. We’ll uh, we’ll just have to beat me. I was a little bit interested and I really want your opinion because I know you’re very big on the Southern California sprinters coming East angle.

And that’s one of the things along with just pace analysis that led me to take a long look at four left. And I was thinking there might be a. A little bit of a saver going on in mine. I wrote bets late, pick five with four left. Well, I will also have plenty of Maven on there. What do you think of that one?

Actually, it was involved in that race and the, the, the main competitor raging whiskey who was six to five that day missed the break and was like really far back. And, you know, kinda came running a little bit late, but not really. I thought it was a weak race for left, was reaching for the wire. Going four and a half.

Now they’re gonna be going five and a half facing more pace pressure, having better horses running at them. The ship for a young horse. Yeah, Mario Tierra is not that familiar with Belmont park. Like some of these other guys are he’ll either move early or move late that I don’t need them at all. Give me somebody else.

If I had to take another pick, that’s a good, that’s a good analysis. And maybe I’ll shift my play a little. I’m still gonna use a little four left, but maybe I’ll take a little bit higher for percentage on the Maven. We’re both doing it now. There’s no way to source is actually named for Dave. Good point.

Is there, does he have any connection to these connections? No, I don’t think so, but I’m, I’m going to pretend that he is. Yeah. And we’ll just keep calling them the Maven and confusing everybody all the more. We also talk a lot about the angle in these two year old steaks, where so many horses have done they’re winning on the lead of trying to land yourself on the best, closer as a horse.

Not necessarily to be able to get up and win, but one that should be passing horses late and have a good chance to get into the. Under positions in vertical exotics. For me, that one here would be the Italian-American also find hunch play for me as well. The Italian American, I think, should be running late.

Seems like a type who could run third and fourth might use the Maven cold on top and have some the Italian American in second, third, and fourth in some super as well. Just as another way to tackle this race beyond the NYRA bets late, pick five. And with that, we’re going to move on to race eight. This one starts a really cool bet that NYRA have introduced for the weekend.

I know you’re a big fan of these cross day picks. This one’s particularly interesting for a couple of reasons. I’ll let you talk about it. Disappointed when Churchill did this, the amount that it handled, I thought it would do a lot better. Um, it’s funny horse players, uh, like to complain and they complain about a lot of things and then something pops up that, uh, kind of fits into what they want and they don’t participate.

So. I’m very hopeful that people will participate in this special 15% takeout, mandatory payout, 20 cent pick six over two days. It starts on Friday with the true North it starts. And then, and then you have the, a grade to Belmont gold cup on Friday as well. And then you have four races on Saturday, the Woody Stevens, uh, the met mile, the Manhattan.

And the Belmont. So it’s, uh, like I said, it’s a 20 cent minimum wager, but it is not a jackpot wager it’s a mandatory payout. So, uh, this should do well. It should do well. And I sure hope it does well. I’m going to be re-tweeting and tweeting and carrying on about it. We need to support this because here’s the problem.

If this doesn’t go good, then you know, people start looking to all the jackpots doing great. Maybe we should go that direction. If the 20%. Excuse me of the 20 cent, 15% takeout, mandatory payout. Doesn’t move the needle. Then maybe HorsePlayers aren’t price sensitive. We need to make sure we prevent people from thinking that we are not price sensitive.

We know that we’re extraordinarily price sensitive, whether you know it or not, honestly, when you just look at the basic economic effects of takeout, but we don’t need to go down that rabbit hole here in short. I agree with everything you’re saying. I have no doubt that if this was given a long time to succeed, it would completely succeed on its own.

But when they do these things, Not quite as a one-off, but almost a little bit like a one-off. It is important to vote with our dollars and support bets like this. One more time. JK, what are the six races in this cross day? Pick six Friday, the true North Friday, the Belmont gold cup. Saturday, the Woody Stevens, the met mile, the Manhattan and the Belmont sticks.

You and me right now. We’ll make a pack. We’re going to get involved in this race. We’ll bet it on NYRA bets. And we’ll try to make one of our big scores for the weekend. Putting our money where our mouth is. You, you down with that, we’ll, we’ll hash out the ticket off air. Unless you try to make me use some horse that I don’t want to use.

You do it on your own. That’s a very good plan B and that does happen to us from time to time, but usually we can find a way to achieve detente. All right, back to this race, old friend strike power in here looks really good to me as an improving. Horse who, uh, had a successful throat surgery might maybe suggesting that that new level of performance from last time is sustainable.

But boy, this is a great race. There’s so many ways to go in here. JK, very excited to hear your thoughts. Uh, Catalina cruiser was one that caught my attention. I would be lying to you if I didn’t tell you that I screenshot. The, uh, the kind of the box. So on the past performances that show Catalina cruiser was undefeated, undefeated, undefeated, undefeated, city of light beat him.

And I text that to Mike McCarthy, uh, just, uh, just to remind him that he’s the one who snapped this one’s winning streak at the Breeder’s cup last year. If he runs back to his previous numbers and I’m very proud of myself for not calling he, uh, she yet, because the Catalina part really throws me off. Um, If he runs back to his previous races at Del Mar in 2018, the San Diego, the paddle Brian, or even as allowance race, he’s going to be extremely tough in here.

I’m very confident move by John Sadler to put them on the plane and to get them over here. Let’s not forget outside of Oh, uh, Oh, John Sattler has struggled to put a horse on the plane. This horse should be over bed. A little bit, definitely is a use to me because he has the potential to run off the screen.

Um, but I’m going to kind of give this that I loved on, on, uh, on Derby day, the Churchill downs sprint runner do share another shot thought Duchenne ran extremely well too back at Aqua and, uh, and ran well enough when, when facing the totally in the last race. And so I think do share is one that could kind of pick up the pieces here.

They’re going to be going. Six and a half, which is my favorite distance looking for a closer think. It’s just that kind of in-between between six and seven or sometimes horses might go a little bit too quick. I completely agree with you on strike power. Um, I and I, and, and Catalina cruiser makes sense.

One more than I’ll give a mention to is recruiting ready? Who, um, who ran well in that race at Keelan that I thought was, was productive with Bobby’s wicked won, who didn’t come back and run so well, turf sprinting last weekend, but I thought recruiting radio’s one that that’s a talented type that, that if let loose or can kind of get a good trip, could be dangerous.

A very fun race. Very fundraising. I’ve kind of think I’ve had enough of Whitmore, but, um, I wouldn’t be surprised if he won either. So I’m going to build a lot of things around Catalina cruiser, strike power, and do share, do share will be my top choice. You say you might’ve had enough of Whitmore, Whitmore showing signs that he might have had enough of racing.

I didn’t like the antics in the gate last time for a professional horse. I don’t remember him doing that in the past. Just makes me very. Scared to use him here. I’d probably, I will lean against Whitmore. And I know what you’re saying about using Catalina crooner cruiser based on the old talent, but my knock there, and I might be wrong about this, but I feel like this was a horse that was really regarded as a super strong work horse and nothing looks wrong with the works exactly.

But I just, I haven’t been. As impressed. So I don’t know it at the price. Catalina cruiser will be against competition. The likes of strike, power and recruiting. Ready. I’m more happy to go with the latter two, but I don’t think I need to cut off my, uh, what’s the old expression cut off my nose to spite my face and get too aggressive.

Trying to be Catalina cruiser. Maybe there’s a defensive use in there. It’ll depend how these tickets fully. Line out for me. Any other thoughts on this? Very interesting running of the true North before we move it along? Then we can move it along. All right. Let’s go to the New York, Homer wreak. Remember Homer reek.

Last time I tipped on here, I mean, short price, nothing to be too proud of, but on class alone and looking back at the race that might’ve been a little sharp that didn’t have a pace that was really run to suit the fact that she got up there with this as the goal all along, I just think she’s laid out.

And looking real, real strong. There are some good horses in here, but I think homework’s going to be too good for them once again. What about you? Yeah, she’s going to be hard to beat. I love the fact she drew outside too. Um, I know she probably wants cover, but I think she’ll still get it. I don’t want her buried inside trying to get out late.

And, um, like you said, I think that the concern last time, the reason you got four to five is there was a concern the mile and a 16th was going to be too short. Um, she was beaten a length to magic wand and wild illusion going a mile and a quarter in France and a grade one. Uh, there’s no grade one types in here.

There’s surely no F you know, French grade, one types in here. I think she’s in a Gallup. I think that one of my minimum plays in the contest will be used either on a, just a straight wind bed on her. No matter what the price is just to get a minimum out of the way. Um, or maybe even some doubles in and out of her.

I think she’s a, I think she’s a layover in this field. Agreed. Now let’s move on to the next race in the sequence, which is also part of the two day pick six. We mentioned before the Belmont gold cup, which is a pretty cool race, had the international participation last year. And this year there’s a horse.

Who’s got a lot of angles that I like, and that’s red Knight moved early into the hot paste last timeout. I always talk about that. The old Andy buyer thing, and now. When you look at the pace figures of this one, relative to the field has a chance to wire them. I love it. JK, when you have a closer who looks to be able or horse, you know, who’s when I say closer, a finisher who looks to be able to have that tactical advantage of being on the lead, that’s a little different than the closers dilemma.

We talk about. This isn’t one with the finishing kick that’s been shown that needs to run super efficiently. This one, I’m happy with this one, setting a slow pace, because I feel like when the real running starts, this is the one who has the advantage. Anyway, it’s going to be red night for me in this race that features so many podcast, famous horses.

Where are you? I just want the horses. If, if they have a parentheses F fr parentheses, GV parentheses, I R E those, all the ones that I’m going to use, I don’t know how to handicap these races. I, I don’t, uh, we obviously don’t come across them very often. Um, it’s not something that takes place in the United States very often.

So to, to try to dive into it from my own perspective, I think could probably be a little misleading. I should probably just. Listen to what other people are saying. I will say this, the first thing I would do is look that have gone two miles and have done it successfully with a time form. Us has figures for a lot of these horses.

So, um, uh, yeah, so on the outside frontal Della core ran second, um, back in 2018 and I’m going to go on the two miles. So I that’s one that, that I would consider with Joelle up. And he’s obviously a great finisher, very strong rider. Don’t see the two miles worth of a ride being an issue for him. Um, but then I would really pretty much go with, with, with what other, you know, kind of international type punters are suggesting.

Hopefully, uh, Pete can, can let me know a little bit about what, uh, Rob dove. One of the top 10 Pope hunters in the UK today has to say about the race, because that would obviously help me along, but I’ll probably defer to the parentheses horses. Are the horses that you guys tell me to play? All right. Well, red Knight should be on that list for sure.

I will check in with dove and see, I won’t do the catchphrase cause you already did it. We can’t let this race go without opportunities to talk at least quickly about our CLO and Hunter O’Reilly. Can we, article is an interesting one. I’ve always felt like he just kind of a grindy type, but he’s tactical for a two mile race.

He’s going to be, be sorta tactical here. Um, I think he makes a lot of sense, really. If he, if he can handle the extra your distance, I know they’ve always felt like the longer, the better for him. And I’ve caught myself fading him in shorter races, uh, keen than when he ran at a mile and a 16th. He was a no-go for me.

And obviously he didn’t, uh, he, uh, didn’t even finish that race. He had some issues at the gate, but, um, um, I think it will know. I think he’s one that can make a little bit of sense and he’ll be wearing the yellow one. Yellow and green, which is enough to get me nervous. Now I’ve seen it. It all JK almost tipping, art glow, and then Hunter.

O’Reilly the famous horse hurricane Anthony who just texted me that I should stop recording the show and call him because he has an important message. I think he’ll wait till the end of the show and then I’ll call him. But who famously gave his soar winter route on Hunter? O’Reilly up at the paddock bar in Saratoga.

Horrifying all the women, children, men. Adults, basically anyone who was in earshot during the worst route of all time. I wonder if he’ll be back on the Hunter. Do you see anything to recommend him? Is he American type that that could still possibly get involved? He had a chance going, uh, the two miles back in 2017 and was beaten.

Two and a half links, which is definitely not something that you would, uh, you would fault him for sure. Sure. I’m going to try to stick with the ones with the parentheses. You basically have no opinion in this race is what you’ve said. Six different ways. I keep asking you about horses and it’s like, you would take the same thing over and over.

I don’t know. I don’t know. Okay. So if you talk about a horse that ran six for a long she’s stretching out to a mile and an eighth, I know what a six for a long horse stretching out to a mile and an eighth can look like I’ve seen that before. I’ve seen that figure pattern. I’ve seen that a story when you start from the bottom of the PPS up, I know, uh, if a six for a long horse based on pedigree can stretch to the mile on an eight.

I I’ve seen that. I’ve got no clue when it comes to a mile and a half horse going two miles or a mile and a 16th horse going two miles. I don’t really know what it looks like. Cause we don’t do it on a daily basis to see this become a little bit more of a division. I think it could be another interesting route for some horses, if, and, and, you know, give opportunities to have some more interesting races, potentially.

I’m not saying I want to see one every day, but it does seem like something you could see more and I hope. That, um, that folks don’t mistake that you’re, you know, this is your opinion as a, as a handicapper, as a horseplayer you’re not like down on the concept of the race. I don’t think though. That was cool.

No, I have no problem with it. I mean, it’s interesting race to watch. Um, you know, no, I’m not down on it at all. It’s just, I, you know, I think, uh, and I’m striving to be a good horse player. But I think a good horseplayer part of the, the, the makeup of a good horseplayer is to, to know what you don’t know.

You and Nick talked about that. I thought very well last week, talking about identifying strengths and weaknesses. So that’s smart for me as somebody who, you know, I don’t have much experience spending these races in the USA either, but I just look for late pace and class and projected trips, because I don’t really know the difference between a horse who can get a mile and a half and a horse who can get.

Two miles. You know what I mean? If, if there’s, if there are breeding guys out there who can, who can split that, Adam, God bless him, but that’s it. The breeding doesn’t factor into it. As much for me, it’s just looking at those handicapping basics. We’ll see if I’m right here. I’m looking forward to it. I have never done great.

I’ve done. Okay. In this race. I, uh, but I’ve not, I haven’t like crushed it at all and it’s in its brief history, but I’m glad it exists. It makes for a fun feature on the day before the Belmont stakes. Let’s move on to the nightcap on Friday, JK the race that precedes SASA Johnny’s performance on the Belmont oval.

How are we going to get paid? I like Laila, Ruth, uh, you know, nice figure. Last time ran. Well, just beaten a length. There did end up finishing fifth, but it was a close fist. Funny money, honey exploded. First time turf. Definite use for me, did it going, uh, you know, for maiden 40, but still I’m, I’m fine with that.

A lot of these horses have run for a tag. That’s why they’re in this starter race. I am against a queen, I guess that’s Khan or Carnahan, or I guess con the, the, the switch to Linda. I don’t like the fact that Rudy entered the horse twice. MTO doesn’t necessarily suggest that he’s extremely confident that this one’s going to like the turf.

I trust Lindo decided to claim, but I’m going to try to beat off of that information. The one that I liked the most is the horse drawn to the far outside and that’s Ailish, uh, ran well last time when to say on this show, Hey, that’s what I’m out here trying to give winners, um, ran the same races last Ella Ruth did last time.

Um, Didn’t run poorly, but, but didn’t run good, but it was off a 222 or 220 daybreak. I would expect that there’ll be an improvement off of that long layoff for this Philly to get her back fit and get her ready to rock Joelle’s it shows up here. And I think she could be extremely dangerous with what looks like could be an improvement on a 90 time form figure last time, if there is an improvement to be made off of the brake.

And second off the layoff. She fits perfectly with these. And so she’ll be my top pick. But I’ll use the other two as well. Laila, Ruth and funny money, honey. Okay. I’m glad you clarified that. I think listeners sometimes get confused when you get to the top pick last, but I understand when, especially in this show, I like the way you described it on the show with Nick, where it’s not as much about just giving a pick as it is trying to give an approach to the race, but it is always good when you can land on the pick.

And I think you very clearly are going with Ailish. In that sense for me. And I want your opinion on smoking, Deb, who I thought looked very interesting in here getting onto her for the first time for connections that know what a good turf horse looks like. Having done some training down at bridal would an opportunity to see move over a number of surfaces drawn to the inside.

I thought it was a wire chance for our friend, Jonathan Thomas, no smoke smoking Deb for you. Hi, like you said for, uh, for, uh, for connections and a trainer that knows what a turf horse looks like. Um, I think the, the, the, the length of time it took to get on the turf is, is one that makes me feel like JT kind of already established, maybe this wasn’t a turf horse.

And let’s see if we can, if we can possibly, uh, you know, maybe sneak a turf, went into this one, or let’s give another shot on the turf. Um, so. I, I don’t doubt it. I love the tactical portion of it. You get Javier all of those reasons that could work out. But there’s not a whole lot. That’s screaming turf to me in the center.

I feel like, especially with young horses and knowing how much money there is to be made on the dirt, it makes sense to give horses every chance on the dirt. A lot of times just there’s more money to be made, I think. And then I think it’s a logical, it’s not like they gave up immediately. The horse showed that she can run a bit and I think.

Might be just a little bit better than some of the rivals here today. We’ll see. It’s definitely a disagreement for us on this one, but that’s always, that’s when the shows are the most fun, it’s it’s not fun going through and agreeing about everything. So yeah, smoking Deb for me in the nightcap few good ideas from you.

Oh, just an incidental. I did know someone with the last name. Of, uh, I forget what number it is. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but queen con it might be con it might be can, I don’t know. We’ll see what Larry Coleman says, but I would have gone with con just to just based on my own life experience.

Any other thoughts on this or anything else on Friday at Belmont? One last thing about smoking Deb that I will mention is November 9th, 2018, they entered the horse MTO. If, if, if, if JT had a sense that maybe this one will like the turf. I just feel like they want to enter the horse straight rather than NTO giving the horse a chance to run on either one.

If it happens to come off, I like that point a lot better as a knock than the other, but I’m just going to say maybe there was some other reason that happened and stick with my guns. We should text him and ask. All right, we are ready now to bring in our special guests. And now it’s my great pleasure to welcome to the NYRA bets podcast.

One of my favorite performers of all time, Southside, Johnny, how you doing today? I’m good. I’m good. Everything seems to be going well. And the weather is nice and I just got back from Spain and, and Prague Czechoslovakia. So have a little jet lag, but I was never coherent. Anyway. Now we met many years ago, I have a couple of things, notes in rock and roll history.

Many people listening to this show know that my father, uh, same name Pete four, and a towel was one of the pioneers of what we used to call progressive FM rock and roll radio, but they don’t know my other footnote in rock history, John, which is at one of the WMS. XR K rent parties back in the day that we used to do for why hunger, where you performed.

I got to move your car from one side of the street.

Look at the trunk. Uh, it was not that much of a Snoop. I considered it, but I quickly abandoned the idea. But, yeah, so we did, we met back in the day and that was so much fun being part of that scene because of my dad having the great opportunity to meet people such as yourself. Well, that was a great time back then.

We really, everybody seemed to be on the same page and we were very excited about the opportunity to be recognized, uh, both DJs and artists. It was a free. Flowing exchange of ideas and music. And it was, it was a great time. I have so many things I want to talk to you about musically. This is a horse racing podcast.

So I’m going to change the tack that I would normally take. I can’t channel my channel, my inner Pete for an a here. Well, you know what? I’m a big fan of too. I used to go to the track with my old man and he taught me out of handicap. That’s awesome. Did you go to Monmouth? I’m going to guess. Mom is a lot of times at mama’s I’ve been to Belmont.

Uh, but the aqueduct, I went to a track in Florida that I cannot remember, but there was a lot of drinks involved. Yeah. I love the race track. I mean, I still go with some friends of mine and, uh, Sometimes you make money. Sometimes we don’t know. One friend of yours is a big racing fan who I’ve run into a couple of times at, uh, Santa Anita, Steve van Zandt.

If you talked to him recently, I haven’t spoken to him in a while. He’s on the road and I’m on the road, but we did meet up in Amsterdam and I came out and signed with him and all like that. Uh, he and I used to go to the track a lot and we had some friends that were at Newsome, uh, jockeys, and we would get the tips and occasionally they would come in and start like the biggest of big shots.

You know what I mean? That’s fantastic. I want to know what was a typical day at the track like for you guys. Well, we would get there for the first race, uh, and we both the daily double, but then we would go and we would have a few drinks. We might skip the third race because things intervened. But if we won the double or if we want any kind of, that exact is, then we were solidly locked in.

I remember one time we were there and we stayed for the last race. Cause there was we, we played the, uh, uh, I think it was the trifecta for the, the last race. And some really long shot came in and we’re all real disappointed and we look at it, but her. Put the prices up and we hear the screen from a balcony and some woman had won $11,000

tickets. Well, that’s not me. You don’t hear me screaming. Well, I want to talk about the gig coming up, where we’re doing this sort of like the old school, uh, musician interview, you know, the new school is we talk all about, you know, every aspect of your career from soup to nuts in the old days, it used to be more about, you know, Hey, and you’ve got the big gig coming up.

Yeah. We’re going to be at the amphitheater Friday night. W we’ll do that part of the interview now. Because I keep telling people a lot of the listeners to the show, obviously, big racetrack degenerates, and we use that term affectionately and I’m telling them they got to hang around and, and check you out Friday night.

Uh, tell us about the performance. What’s your, uh, what do you got the whole band there? What are we, what can we expect? Yeah, we played Belmont a couple of times before, um, and we played mama’s park too. Um, I guess, I think we’re supposed to do one song before some race, and then we’re going to do like, uh, an hour after the races or something like that.

I just got it in my email and I ever really cause you know, I’m going to be here all day. Uh, and I’m sure I’ll be out at the, uh, It depends on looking as it was going. I didn’t even know what I’m looking

for an hour, I think after the races. Um, so you know, it’s not that late. No, I, I think that’s going to fit in neatly before many people’s dinner plans. And if you have to push the dinner plans a little bit later, I’m telling you people it’s absolutely worth it. I would say Johnny, that. I would put your, I would put your live performances.

And when I think of the concerts I’ve been to, and I’ve been to a lot of concerts since my dad took me to see a hairy champion in the late 1970s, that was my first trail. And in that time, I’m going to put you as a top three concert. Uh, it is a amazing experience to see you perform live. And that’s my first.

Serious question for you. I feel like you’ve got this amazing performers charisma, and you’ve done some acting over the years. I recall seeing you the first time, I’d listened to your music before dancing around with my dad and living room. But the first time I think I ever physically saw you was on an episode of SCTV back in the day.

I remember. Yeah. With John Eugene’s all the rest of them. Uh, yeah, we were there. That was up in Calvin, I believe. Yeah. In Canada and the sun stayed up till forever. It was summertime. And I remember we got there and I couldn’t sleep because the sun was up and I couldn’t talk. So I didn’t get allowed to sleep in at nine o’clock in the morning.

Eight 39 o’clock we, he supposed to be there for rehearsals, even though we were just playing, but they put in a couple of skits and John candy comes in, walking in, I at nine 30, he goes, comes over to the gills, your South side, Johnny, which is big on him around, he says, come with me and walked me out that place.

Uh, into a bar that was right next to it. And we started drinking martinis at nine 30 and

all of my stories about drinking. I’m not that bad of a drunk. Uh, it makes you, uh, near and dear to our audience. And on this show, my cohost. I always do with my parents. One that my mother and father would go to the racetrack. I always do when they went, because they come in and corral us kids. And we go to Pete elders, a pizza, joint pizza and stuff.

Cause they want money. If they didn’t win any money, then they would come home and we’d have hot dogs, not a bad, not a bad alternative, but not nearly as fun as going out for the pizza. And then, yeah. Through my fandom of yours. I’ve seen you over the years in many other, uh, visual projects. One that I saw recently, a movie called between the lines.

This, I don’t know how much you remember about that. That was just so it was a 76, 77, uh, Joan Micklin silver director, Jeff Goldblum was there that a bunch of people were in it. Now we were playing at night at some club in New York, and we had to get up at five 30 in the morning to be here, to be in our scenes in the movie.

So we were a completely devastated as far as lack of sleep. Oh, it was fun. It was interesting. It was the first time I’d ever been in a movie set and kind of behind the scenes when we weren’t. In the scene and see how people interacted and all, and, and, uh, it was very fascinating to me. The movie holds up amazingly well, have you revisited it in the last few years?

I haven’t seen it in 30 years. It’s worth rewatching. Not only excellent, but it really sort of, pre-saved a lot of what’s happened in journalism, just in the last like decade or so, not positive things, but it really, it was very forward-thinking film and I recommend people check it out. And then I’ve seen you in, you were in a Sopranos episode.

I F I believe I saw you more recently in a, in a billions episode. Yeah. Yeah. You’ve got this performer’s Christmas. Did you ever think about giving acting more of a go professionally? Cause I, I think he could have done it. Well, the problem with acting is that it is the only spontaneity in it is. When you’re actually acting and then you have the director, so, you know, do it this way.

No, do it that way. But you sit around and do nothing for hours and hours and hours, and that’s just not appealing to me. Also. I like to do whatever I want to do on the stage. So it’s, it’s a different discipline that actors have to know that lines have to hit their marks, have to be able to, you know, mold their ad.

Adding to what the director wants or what they want. And me, I just want to go on stage and if I forget the lyrics, I’ll make up some new, let me, you know, I, I really just want to have fun and make music and get emotionally involved in it. I guess acting is like that, but it is really. A tough racket and I, it’s not appealing to me, but you get it.

You got to get up early in the morning. I am not a musician and get up early in the morning. That’s not one of the appeals. I don’t know. I mean, do any musicians get up early in the morning? I would say of all the great over sleepers I’ve met in my life. The co-host of this program is one of them, but the others are all musicians, musicians.

Like sedans and it one song, I don’t know, by my eyes until midnight, we used to say, we all shared an apartment one time and we would get up really 11 o’clock noon and then fumble around. And then, you know, we didn’t go out to face the world until seven 30, eight o’clock at night, because that’s when the action was starting, you know, and we just got used to it and we were we’d, we’d be up all night making music or talking or.

Playing cards. We didn’t want them to day job. We didn’t have a day job. We had a night job and it was great. You are known as the father, I suppose. One of the fathers of the Jersey sound, where did it come from? I don’t think there is a Jersey sound. I think there’s a Jersey expos and make, you’ve got to work hard on stage.

Cause it’s pretty much blue collar people that we played to and they work hard and they expect us to work hard too. And be honest about it. Be sincere on stage, but it’s also the idea of a New Jersey was such a joke state for so instill is, I mean, still people still say New Jersey. Ha ha. And it gives you a real chip on his shoulder, you think, Oh yeah, I’m from New Jersey, what’s this.

And it gave us the impetus to be very aggressive and hard charging on stage. And I think that’s one of the main standbys of bands from New Jersey. They really. No, they really kicked the crap out of it as much as they possibly can. There was no relaxing on stage in the famous interview where Bon Jovi said you gave him a reason to sing, basically inspiring his whole, you know, the, the, the mega crazy explosion that’s been, that’s been his career.

How did that make you feel to hear somebody from the younger, uh, from a generation younger, talk about you in those terms? Guilty. He could have been something. It was doctor,

you know, Jonathan has been a big supporter and he’s a good friend. He works on stage too. He knows if he doesn’t not want to yell at him and he’s yelled at me to get to keep moving. So it’s, it’s a very supportive relationship in that we both, you know, We know what our heart is to make any kind of headway.

And so you support each other. It’s been the same with all of us from New Jersey. There’s no real competition in the sense that you think I can do better than him or any of that stuff. It’s Hey, he’s great. I’m going to support him or, you know, I like him. We’ve all played in each other’s bands. No, it’s just a big support group.

I put you in my top three live shows. Another everybody can probably guess your, uh, your cohort Springsteen. And then the third one might surprise people cause he barely plays live. But when I saw Tom waits live several years, years ago at the beacon theater he put on in an effort that was Herculean. I mean, absolutely.

Yeah. Amazing performer. Why is it I want to ask you about him specifically and I’ll get to that in a minute, but why is it for some performers? It seems like the act of going out there on stage, energizes them and for others, it’s almost it’s they can do that. They can be a great performer. I’m not talking about the shoe gazing types.

It can be a great performer, but still there’s something in it that takes so much out of them that they don’t do it that often. Can you explain that to me? I think Tom, doesn’t like a lot of the aspects of, of, of travel with Suarez playing, you know, uh, he’s great. He’s on stage. He loves being on stage. He loves interacting with the audience.

Uh, but I think it’s just the whole rigmarole of it is, is daunting. Um, I don’t, you know, he used to love to drive, but he had this big old Cadillac to drive around the streets of new hat in Manhattan with him. And he told me how he loved to drive on the freeways. California, but I think he’s gotten away from a lot of that and I think he’d rather stay home and, uh, he’s got his kids are grown.

I don’t know. I, I know, I really don’t know what’s behind that, but when he does play, he’s spectacular. It’s, it’s one of those things you see and you know, I’m never going to forget this. You are such a great interpreter of wide ranges of material. I know you’ve done a number of weights songs over the years.

What is it about his material that you connect with? I just love the lyrics and the whole, uh, feel of street people and people with strange lives and the down and dirty and the nitty gritty. It’s it’s uh, He can be very sentimental or romantic, but he can also face the fact that people have real hardship and bizarreness in life.

What I think I liked the most or one of the things I liked the most is his great melodies, which sometimes get lost in his own interpretations of songs because he he’s trying to find a different way of doing it than just straight ahead. I admire that, but I also think sometimes the songs get a little lost and that’s why I went to do them.

I just. Love the songs. And I want people to, to hear them in all 40 songs instead of this crazy eccentric performer. Not that I’m not that too,

as you were describing it, the song that popped in my head was Dion’s cover of heart of Saturday night. I had any chance to mention Dion to honor my father, you know, they were, uh, they were buddies. Um, do you know that recording? Yes, I am familiar with that. And then we’ve, we’ve played with piano and he is such a gentleman and a great guy and tells great stories.

Uh, he’s one of my ears. He taught me. He’s only Benny King and Ray Charles. He’s one of the guys that I learned to sing from all the improvised, uh, syllables, all the syllables that he would throw in just to keep the rhythm going. It’s it was a real education deal. Oh, that’s very, very cool. Well, w you, you, you tell him, uh, Pete four and a towel says hi, and, uh, it’s, uh, it’s, it’s great to know that, uh, that, that connection is there.

And then, and of course it seems to me that you take, you take that influence that very city influence and you take, I guess, the stacks sound had to be, be a huge influence on you on your, uh, on your recordings throughout your career. What about that resonated with you? Yeah, I liked stacks and all the subs and stuff more than one like Motown.

Although Marvin gay was great. Motown had some incredible performers and great song writers and records, but I first heard Otis Redding. I thought, who is that? Sparse drenched in emotion delivery really spoke to me and you know, then Sam and Dave and all the rest of them, to me, it just seems much more raw.

And. Much more powerful than a lot of the property or R and B came out of Motown. So that’s the kind of stuff I gravitate to. When I started to sing, I did a lot of blues, Chicago style blues, but there was always some Stax volt. Songs that got in there because people would dance to him too. So, you know, that was important.

It’s a great point. I missed the chance to bring it full circle before when you were talking about the weight songwriting and strange people and the nitty gritty, I could have said, Hey, you brought it right back to the racetrack. So it’s, it really is a world that, uh, th th th that you see that overlap. I can understand your, your appeal what’s appealing to you about the track.

I mean HorsePlayers as a people, how do you, how would you describe them if you were talking to somebody who didn’t know what your typical horseplayer was like as somebody who spent a lot of time at the track, how would you describe what you see from the people when you go there? I love the pledge jackets in the green pants.

That’s right. I remember. Uh, and I still do see there’s so many great characters. At the track, people have gone forever. New people are just finding it out. I mean, there’s a lot of people that come and they’re just normal. People just have to have a good time, but the real track Denison’s, you know, are so great.

They are all from the Tom waits. So Jim Jarmusch movie, and I remember when my favorite moment at the race track, my father mini race track, I was a teenager then I guess, and he comes in and he’s got on a, like a. Tan jacket and blue slacks or some, you know, some bizarre accommodation and he looks over and he says, Hey, that’s kind of basic.

Cause count basic courses from red bank and we can’t pay, she was in town. He loved to go to the Monmouth park two miles apart. So my father. Goes running over to him because my father was a huge cafes fan and I went, Oh God. And my father goes over to me. He goes, Hey counts. He pulls out his racing for him.

And the two of them put their heads together and they forget the fan thing. They were right into fourth, race, number seven, all your crazy number five is going to be. And I was just a beautiful moment for John Pacey at my father. And he had wanted to play a jacket in the green slacks and my jacket and the blue slacks.

And I thought this, I want this captured, I want this on film. I want, you know, somebody to film this, but I remember it. So that’s as good as I can get. I guess that’s amazing Johnny, I got goosebumps as you were telling that story. And I also love the fact that Jim Jarmusch gets a call we’ve now. Fully established our hipster bone a few days.

Well, you know what I mean, is there are people who, who, uh, dwell in that kind of Outland of people who don’t fit into normal society. And as a musician growing up in the sixties and seventies, Uh, I know what that feels like. You know, we were always mocked. What are you going to be the Beatles? And you better get it back up, but it goes to school, you know, all that crap and to kind of get the musicians.

And so we were kind of odd balls, but we rebel them. Because we didn’t want to be like the squares and you see the people that the, that has, they are just the same as us. They don’t want to lead a normal life. They know what they like and they want it. Oh, that is the best description. I’ve never quite put that together the way you just expressed it.

And it is just the truth. It’s just raining down upon me. When you talk about that, that, you know, you want to, you want to do your own thing and have a good time while doing it. There is plenty of overlap. My life finally makes sense, Johnny. I was supposed to go into music broadcasting. I ended up in horse racing and now I know why.

Thank you. Yeah, that’s exactly right. I mean, you find what you like if other people don’t like you doing it, the screw on that note, we’re going to tell people one more time, stick around. If you’re at Belmont tomorrow, stick around for the concert. If you’re not at Belmont tomorrow, you’re doing it wrong.

Come out to Belmont tomorrow and then stick around for the concert. Southside Johnny. Absolutely. One of the pleasures of my broadcasting career. We’re talking to you today. I appreciate it. That’s going to do it for this edition of the NYRA bets late pick five podcast. Boy, I’m recording this right after hanging up the phone with Johnny and I’m still sort of buzzing from the conversation.

How fun was that? Southside, Johnny? We’ll start our thank yous with you for more of Southside Johnny’s music, checkout Southside, johnny.com. We’ll also thank you. Jonathan kitchen. Most of all want to thank all of you, the listeners. And boy, I love to share stuff about the track with you. We got some great racetrack stories there and you just make the show so much fun to do.

This show has been a production of in the money media in the money media’s business manager is drew Courtney I’m Peter Thomas  mayor. When all your Belmont photos.

Yeah. Making up the rules that when a long, just one coat between us and we never fell cold.

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